Life — October 5, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Political Cartoon Analysis This page features an interview with British Poet Laureate Robert Bridges regarding his critical statement "To Hell with America." The handwritten quote visible in the image confirms Bridges made this inflammatory remark. The accompanying cartoon satirizes the complaint through a domestic scene: a woman asks a zookeeper to silence a roaring lion because she has a headache. The joke draws a parallel—just as the woman finds the lion's noise unbearable, so too do Americans find Bridges' harsh criticism intolerable. The cartoon mocks both Bridges' outburst and America's sensitive reaction to foreign criticism. The "New York Whirled" subtitle suggests Life magazine is presenting this as sensationalized news coverage typical of yellow journalism.